Last night I received a phone call from an ex in-law. But is there even such a thing?
When you get a divorce you get an ex-husband, but what do you call the people who were once such an important part of your life and are now no longer?
I'd always hoped that I'd be able to call them "friends", but that's not the case with most of them. My divorce has been so ugly that, unfortunately, family members have had to take sides and most of my ex-husband's family have sided with him. That makes sense, especially since I haven't been particularly friendly with them since the split, but it did sorta surprise me.
You see, during our marriage, I was always the "level-headed, kind-hearted wife". These people shared confidential things with me that they didn't share with my husband and seemed to genuinely care about me. But when it came time to take sides, blood won out, and these people are now in the enemy camp. So what do I call them?
My former mother-in-law is obviously struggling with the same question. She sent me a Christmas card last month, but she didn't sign it. She wrote "Love," but then she didn't put a name. Poor thing, I guess she's dealing with her own identity crisis. Is she still "Mom" or is she Mrs. "my former last name", who the heck is she? She's not sure and, quite frankly, neither am I.
Divorce forces us to deal with some strange issues, doesn't it?
When you get a divorce you get an ex-husband, but what do you call the people who were once such an important part of your life and are now no longer?
I'd always hoped that I'd be able to call them "friends", but that's not the case with most of them. My divorce has been so ugly that, unfortunately, family members have had to take sides and most of my ex-husband's family have sided with him. That makes sense, especially since I haven't been particularly friendly with them since the split, but it did sorta surprise me.
You see, during our marriage, I was always the "level-headed, kind-hearted wife". These people shared confidential things with me that they didn't share with my husband and seemed to genuinely care about me. But when it came time to take sides, blood won out, and these people are now in the enemy camp. So what do I call them?
My former mother-in-law is obviously struggling with the same question. She sent me a Christmas card last month, but she didn't sign it. She wrote "Love," but then she didn't put a name. Poor thing, I guess she's dealing with her own identity crisis. Is she still "Mom" or is she Mrs. "my former last name", who the heck is she? She's not sure and, quite frankly, neither am I.
Divorce forces us to deal with some strange issues, doesn't it?
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